The game last night went to triple overtime. I was joking that it wouldn't stop until Doc and Vinny were suiting up again to play due to everyone running out of fouls. The whole series has been full of insane game tying or winning shots with two seconds left.

I haven't been following the playoffs as closely this year because my Suns decided they didn't want it bad enough. I've only been able to catch the highlights, but yes Bulls/Celtics been a stunning series. I'm rooting for the underdogs (Bulls).

The Suns actually did pretty well. They are just stuck in the Western Conference where apparently you need to win 50 games just to get to the playoffs where as in the East you don't even need to be .500.

Being a Suns fan, I despise the Lakers with seething animosity and hatred.

That said, I have to say the Lakers are a force to be reckoned with. I think it will be Lakers/Cavs in the Finals. Kobe vs LeBron in an epic battle for a ring. David Stern would love that, so he'll make sure it happens that way.

Way too early to declare your championship. Especially since you might not even make it out of the next round...

Houston is dangerous when they hit their shots. When they shoot well from the perimeter, no one beats them.

Well except for the Lakers who swept them during the four games within the regular season.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jazzguru

Being a Suns fan, I despise the Lakers with seething animosity and hatred.

That said, I have to say the Lakers are a force to be reckoned with. I think it will be Lakers/Cavs in the Finals. Kobe vs LeBron in an epic battle for a ring. David Stern would love that, so he'll make sure it happens that way.

I'm sure that would be the hope of anyone trying to get the best ratings as it would be the easiest to hype.

I sometimes feel bad for the Suns. They've never quite gotten there. They're kind of like the Queens, I mean Kings who are good enough to go a bit deep in the playoffs for a bit but always bow down to the eventual winners.

Suns worked well under pressure this year and whoever they have on staff has done a great job getting Shaq healed and moving again. I hope a pick up or two helps them move up, but not past my Lakers.

Well except for the Lakers who swept them during the four games within the regular season.

Come on...the playoffs are different. There are plenty of teams that have swept the regular season and lost a series.

Game 1: A legitimate loss, although it was in the first week of the season and McGrady and Artest went 3-22 combined. Any team would lose when two of your big three shoot that poorly.

Game 2: Lost by five with a starting five of Yao, Scola, Battier, Wafer, and Alston. Not the same team.

Game 3: Rockets were up the entire game until Artest and Battier got in foul trouble early in the 4th quarter. The refs wouldn't let Kobe be bodied up, and he completely had his way the rest of the game. Rockets lose by 6.

Game 4: Another loss, but it was on April 3 and was the last week of the season. Not a game you can really judge.

The series will be a lot closer than you think.

"If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress." - Mickey Mantle

WRONG, Jordan Farmar was injuried earlier this year with torn knee ligament and Luke Walton was injured as well. People could say big deal but the reality is the roster is only 12. 1/4 injured this year at various times.

You should be thankful McGrady has been injured. Now the Rockets aren't worried about him and can ship his sorry ass off somewhere. He and cousin Vince aren't worth much in my book.

It's gonna be tough. Had the Lakers managed to get home court throught the playoffs, I'd bet on them winning the championship out of the West.

The Lakers beat Cleveland twice this year, but should they meet in the Finals it is going to be tough for the Lakers or whoever ends up coming out of the West to win at Cleveland.

Trumptman is right. The Lakers had their injuries as well. I think the Lakers are even better now because of the play of Brown though. Finally a 1 who can actually defend unlike that turnstyle POS Farmar.

I don't know why Bynum wouldn't "count" as an injury though.

The Rockets will be tough in a series. No doubt. Battier and Artest will combine on Kobe so we'll see how much of a toll that takes on him. I think Houston can have offensive problems. Hope I don't jinx it, but Yao has got to be the weakest big man ever. Some games they don't even go to him in the 4th quarter.

How a man that size does not dominate games is amazing.

Tough series. I'll have to go with the Lakers 4-2 if they play to their capabilities. I may have a ticket for game 2 on Wednesday as well!

Come on, Jordan Farmar? Walton? Their injuries had no fuckin' barring on the season. Ariza and Fisher (shit, even Shannon Brown) filled those spots quite fine. I was talking about key players. If I wanted to include a Brent Barry infected hangnail or a Carl Landry wounded hamstring I could have, but what's the point?

Look, there's a reason why they have playoffs. That's why they don't hand out championship trophies to first place teams in the regular season. The Cavs and Lakers are great teams, that's a given. But for you to automatically proclaim a championship based on your regular season and your cupcake series with Utah, that's way too preemptive. There's still a month and a half left to go. There's too much basketball left, bud. You're not going to roll that easily through the playoffs. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they won the whole damn thing. But it ain't a given...

Why should I be thankful about McGrady? I never said I was Rockets fan. I could really care less who wins...

"If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress." - Mickey Mantle

Come on, Jordan Farmar? Walton? Their injuries had no fuckin' barring on the season. Ariza and Fisher (shit, even Shannon Brown) filled those spots quite fine. I was talking about key players. If I wanted to include a Brent Barry infected hangnail or a Carl Landry wounded hamstring I could have, but what's the point?

Look, there's a reason why they have playoffs. That's why they don't hand out championship trophies to first place teams in the regular season. The Cavs and Lakers are great teams, that's a given. But for you to automatically proclaim a championship based on your regular season and your cupcake series with Utah, that's way too preemptive. There's still a month and a half left to go. There's too much basketball left, bud. You're not going to roll that easily through the playoffs. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they won the whole damn thing. But it ain't a given...

Why should I be thankful about McGrady? I never said I was Rockets fan. I could really care less who wins...

Why all the indignation? Taking it a little too personally there. You must be a Kings fan or something. Aren't you?

It's a good thing you "could really care less who wins..." after reading that post.

Couple things. Fisher is a starter so he wasn't filling anyone's spot. Brown wasn't playing much at all back then. He started getting minutes maybe in the last 10-12 games of the season.

Farmar was the leader of a bench that was playing great basketball. When he went down the bench's performance went wayyyy down and it still hasn't improved all that much. Much like Farmar's game.

And your "Bynum doesn't count" comment is utterly ridiculous. Bynum was playing great. The last 12 games prior to his injury he was averaging 21 points and 9 rebounds per game.

It's gonna be tough. Had the Lakers managed to get home court throught the playoffs, I'd bet on them winning the championship out of the West.

The Lakers beat Cleveland twice this year, but should they meet in the Finals it is going to be tough for the Lakers or whoever ends up coming out of the West to win at Cleveland.

Trumptman is right. The Lakers had their injuries as well. I think the Lakers are even better now because of the play of Brown though. Finally a 1 who can actually defend unlike that turnstyle POS Farmar.

I don't know why Bynum wouldn't "count" as an injury though.

The Rockets will be tough in a series. No doubt. Battier and Artest will combine on Kobe so we'll see how much of a toll that takes on him. I think Houston can have offensive problems. Hope I don't jinx it, but Yao has got to be the weakest big man ever. Some games they don't even go to him in the 4th quarter.

How a man that size does not dominate games is amazing.

Tough series. I'll have to go with the Lakers 4-2 if they play to their capabilities. I may have a ticket for game 2 on Wednesday as well!

I think Yao comes across weak because he appears very limited energy-wise. I'm not questioning his conditioning, it just seems he has a limit to the number of minutes he can be effective in a game and beyond that nothing works so they just take him out. I have no proof of it other than we're all built out of the same stuff and maybe at a certain point it stops scaling.

The same thing can sort of be said for Bryant, and his energy level. I think Zen Phil bugging him all these years and just the wisdom of playing has helped him to understand no matter how big "da man" you are, you pick your spots, times and places to exert that energy since we all have limits. So I don't think the ganging up thing will bother him so much since he is more aware of how to "schedule" that energy so to speak.

If anything I would worry about Artest, he clearly has talent and has redeemed his attitude to some degree, plays well but still doesn't seem to play smart. There are some nights he is shooting 20% and will still just keep chucking away. Kobe's learned there are nights you have to put the team on your back, nights you have to stop someone and nights you have to distribute. I don't think Artest understands that as well.

I still think Lakers in five just because they don't seem to crush people yet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Guybrush Threepwood

Come on, Jordan Farmar? Walton? Their injuries had no fuckin' barring on the season. Ariza and Fisher (shit, even Shannon Brown) filled those spots quite fine. I was talking about key players. If I wanted to include a Brent Barry infected hangnail or a Carl Landry wounded hamstring I could have, but what's the point?

Look, there's a reason why they have playoffs. That's why they don't hand out championship trophies to first place teams in the regular season. The Cavs and Lakers are great teams, that's a given. But for you to automatically proclaim a championship based on your regular season and your cupcake series with Utah, that's way too preemptive. There's still a month and a half left to go. There's too much basketball left, bud. You're not going to roll that easily through the playoffs. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if they won the whole damn thing. But it ain't a given...

Why should I be thankful about McGrady? I never said I was Rockets fan. I could really care less who wins...

They do have a bearing. You add minutes to a starter because of a weak reserve, then suddenly you have an injury down the line at a critical time. All this stuff has to be managed. Ariza doesn't seem to contribute any huge numbers but has a ton of intangibles. He had a broken foot last year and came back for the playoffs but wasn't in the same rhythm yet. Andrew is in that same place right now. Think about this fact, Lakers have TWO very strong seven footers to stick in there against Yao. It isn't some parlor trick arrangement either, that is the typical starting line up. Yao is going to have to exert himself and his limited energy much more than normal. Most teams do not have two seven footers and then a very flexible and powerful 6'10" Lamar Odom to dump in on top of that. Lakers can play huge and small. Houston's not going to have an answer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gilsch

Why all the indignation? Taking it a little too personally there. You must be a Kings fan or something. Aren't you?

It's a good thing you "could really care less who wins..." after reading that post.

Couple things. Fisher is a starter so he wasn't filling anyone's spot. Brown wasn't playing much at all back then. He started getting minutes maybe in the last 10-12 games of the season.

Farmar was the leader of a bench that was playing great basketball. When he went down the bench's performance went wayyyy down and it still hasn't improved all that much. Much like Farmar's game.

And your "Bynum doesn't count" comment is utterly ridiculous. Bynum was playing great. The last 12 games prior to his injury he was averaging 21 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Exactly. He makes it sound like Bynum wasn't even starting or something.

I think Yao comes across weak because he appears very limited energy-wise. I'm not questioning his conditioning, it just seems he has a limit to the number of minutes he can be effective in a game and beyond that nothing works so they just take him out. I have no proof of it other than we're all built out of the same stuff and maybe at a certain point it stops scaling.

I agree with you. It's common belief that he runs out of gas in games. However, someone his size should be dominant when picking his spots. Period. Seen games where he was in foul trouble, came back on in the 4th quarter and didn't even try to get involved.

Quote:

I think Zen Phil bugging him all these years and just the wisdom of playing has helped him to understand no matter how big "da man" you are, you pick your spots, times and places to exert that energy since we all have limits. So I don't think the ganging up thing will bother him so much since he is more aware of how to "schedule" that energy so to speak.

I have my issues with Phil especially with how he just sits there without calling a time out while a team prone to blowing big leads(the last couple years) is blowing yet another one. His "let them figure it out/let them play through it" philosophy doesn't work with this group and it puts extra mileage on Kobe who ends up playing more minutes than he should.

You mentioned Artest and I agree. My only concern is Kobe getting sucked into a Kobe vs. Artest situation where Kobe tries to go for 40 taking those circus-23ft.-turn-around-jumpers-with-3-defenders-on-him.

Why all the indignation? Taking it a little too personally there. You must be a Kings fan or something. Aren't you?

It's a good thing you "could really care less who wins..." after reading that post.

Couple things. Fisher is a starter so he wasn't filling anyone's spot. Brown wasn't playing much at all back then. He started getting minutes maybe in the last 10-12 games of the season.

Farmar was the leader of a bench that was playing great basketball. When he went down the bench's performance went wayyyy down and it still hasn't improved all that much. Much like Farmar's game.

And your "Bynum doesn't count" comment is utterly ridiculous. Bynum was playing great. The last 12 games prior to his injury he was averaging 21 points and 9 rebounds per game.

Explain where I got personal?

I'm well aware Fisher was a starter. What I meant was Farmar wasn't taking any minutes away from anyone nor did he have a big impact on them winning. Jordan Farmar is not the glue you make him out to be, I'm sorry.

And lastly, just checked on Bynum and I was wrong. I was under the assumption he was out the extremely early in the season. I didn't know he went down in February. My error.

"If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress." - Mickey Mantle

Lakers are in trouble. I was giving them the series 4-2 based on home court...now that's out the window. Good job Lakers!

Yao played very well. At 7-6 with a nice stroke and an excellent free-thrower, it's amazing he doesn't dominate every game. What's encouraging to me as a Laker fan is that as terrible- terrible- as the Lakers were, they were still in it with 4ish minutes to go.

It was just one game, but it goes to show you can throw regular season games out the window.

I expect the Lakers to come out and really take it to Houston in Game 2. But they have to find an answer for Brooks. No one could guard him in Game 1. If he continues to have big games, that might be the 17 points Houston needs each game to win the series.

And get to the rack, Kobe!

"If I had played my career hitting singles like Pete (Rose), I'd wear a dress." - Mickey Mantle